Liev Schreiber/USA/2005; R4
Warner Bros, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER's audacious first novel won critics’ awards and garnered rave reviews. He deserved this for the blazing trail of his multi-voiced narrative and the weirdly wonderful plot, structured via sequential flashbacks, transliterated voices and miscommunications. That Safran Foer put himself (literally, as a character) in to his own book, was just one of many indulgent extravagances that the first-time novelist managed to pull off with wit an alacrity – coming across as daring rather than arrogant.

That’s impressive enough. But not for him, the sophomore slump. No. Safran Foer’s second book (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) went on to achieve greater sales, bigger awards and huge critical praise. The young novelist now enters that dangerous area of becoming iconic within literature within his own lifetime. He is a new version of a Philip Roth, or David Foster Wallace. A post-9/11 Brett Easton Ellis, the next David Mitchell...

While Safran Foer contemplates his next move for the page, Liev Schreiber (a character actor, most notably the killer, Cotton, in the Scream franchise) has decided to use Foer’s first novel as the source-text for his first film. It’s a move as bold, as audacious and daring as when the first germs of the novel were put to page. And it’s a move that has paid off.

Everything Is Illuminated tells the story of Jonathan Safran Foer (the fictional character, at least) a collector of family memories. Foer journeys to the Ukraine to trace the lineage and life of a heroine he never knew in his lifetime; the woman who saved an ancestor in his Jewish family line.

The reticent Foer (well played by Elijah Wood) must navigate his way through this strange land, accompanied by his translator/guide, Alex, his “blind” grandfather and the “seeing-eye bitch” Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior (named after, and in tribute to, Sammy Davis, Junior, the singer). Newcomer, Eugene Hutz, perfectly captures the Alex from Foer’s novel. All hip-hop posturing, faux (and naïve) Americanism-by-proxy, no hint of irony – a proud sense of earnestness as he bumbles along geographically and linguistically.

Schreiber adapted the novel for his screenplay – and he changes the narrative technique (leaving the characters of Jonathan and Alex on the screen together for the majority of the film) whereas in the book they to and fro in letter exchanges. But the flow is not interrupted – and audiences of the film will enjoy the culture clashes presented on the screen just as much as readers of the book can confirm this aspect as a humour highlight.

The other audacious skill of Foer the writer was to bend humour around tragedy; not merely revelling in black comedy – but blending the laughter of whimsical situations within the pathos of human emotional responses. This is somewhat harder to achieve through the medium of film. There’s more of a clear line in the filmed version of Everything Is Illuminated, the humour definitely disappears in the second half – but this does not mean the tale trails off. Rather, we become, erm, illuminated by Alex and Jonathan’s situations – by their sudden compassion for one another despite previous disaffection. In the end, the story is a wonderful journey (inward) as explored through a physical sequence of travel. This metaphor is common to writer’s exploring their roots, but Jonathan Safran Foer’s understated, quirky approach – embroidered by a very clear flare for wordplay and word-placement – was what made Everything Is Illuminated, the book, to be a success. Schreiber’s understanding and respect for Foer’s talents and his clear love of the book have helped him to translate it to the screen.


INCLUDED on the DVD are some additional and extended scenes – these are well worth a watch as some of the fantasy sequences from the book are explored here. The scenes are not only funny, they are visually colourful and exciting. Schreiber has done well here – I look forward to an adaptation of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I assume Schreiber will be fighting for the rights?